A liquid-crystal display apparatus referred to as a thin type, such as a liquid-crystal television, includes a display panel which has a display surface on which an image is displayed at the front side thereof formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a light source module arranged at the rear side of the display panel and emitting light to the display panel.
As the light source module, a direct light type in which a diffusion plate and a support for supporting the diffusion plate are arranged at the rear side of the display panel while a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light emitting diode (LED) are arranged at the rear side of the diffusion plate, and an edge light type in which a light guide plate and a support for supporting the light guide plate are arranged at the rear side of the display panel and a light emitting diode is arranged at the side surface side of the light guide plate have generally been adopted (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-300170, for example).
In the light source module of the edge light type, multiple light emitting diodes are arranged to be opposed to a side surface of the light guide plate, and light made incident from the side surface of the light guide plate is output from one surface of the light guide plate while being diffused within the light guide plate. It is thus possible to reduce the thickness in the front-back direction of the display apparatus compared to the direct light type in which multiple light sources are arranged side by side on the rear side of the diffusion plate, so that the edge light type is advantageously employed in terms of making the apparatus thinner.